Classic Trains – September 2019

56 CLASSIC TRAINS FALL 2019

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

We began our fifth day on the road
with the Keweenaw’s lone passenger
train, the Milwaukee’s Chicago–Calumet,
Mich., Copper Country Limited, which
Soo Line handled on the northerly 77
miles out of Champion. The evening be-
fore, we’d chased it from Baraga to L’Anse.
Northbound, it was due out of
“Houghton-Hancock,” as the schedule

read, at 8:30 a.m. Leaving, the train

turned right to cross the lower deck of the

lift bridge over the Portage River Water-

way (a.k.a. Portage Canal), which connects

Lake Superior proper with Keweenaw

Bay. Soo’s ex-Duluth, South Shore & At-

lantic tracks immediately forked to Lake

Linden and Calumet, the latter to the left

and onto a short, steep grade. We chose a

spot halfway up, near the dormant Han-

cock depot, for our photo.

Railroading here dated from the

1870s, and these lines of the “South

Shore,” which Soo merged in 1961, were

part of the old Mineral Range Railroad

(not to be confused with the current

Mineral Range, which resurrected 12 ex-

Lake Superior & Ishpeming miles in

2013). Soon after the Copper Country had

gone, the Lake Linden freight, with yel-

low AS616s 394 and 390, crossed the

bridge and turned right. We followed it to

Dollar Bay, with yours truly losing a half-

shot roll of 8mm movie film in the chase,

then drove 12 miles to Calumet.

The passenger train already had

turned and parked at the station for the

day. The consist, MILW unless noted,

sported three sleepers instead of the usual

one or two, which ran on alternate days.

Behind FP7s 101A and 103A were head-

end cars 1300, 1219 (with RPO), and

1225; rib-side coaches 562 and 450;

sleeper Jefferson River; and UP sleepers

Pacific Patrol and American Escort.

Also there was Calumet & Hecla’s

mining railroad. We knew it had three

orange Baldwin switchers, but in driving

by the enginehouse, we noticed GE

44-tonners inside. Trains had reported

another S12 had come from the Army,

and we soon encountered it, parked.

Numbered L-4 and painted black, it was

built in 1950; under fresh paint we read

“Dept. of the Army, Corps of Engineers,

Garrison District.”

After a lunch stop at the local A&W

(don’t ask Roger about the orange freeze

that spilled into his camera bag!), we re-

turned to Houghton, pausing to view the

ruins of the 6-mile, 3-foot-gauge Quincy

& Torch Lake. Abandoned in place in

1945, four locomotives were left in the

stone enginehouse, with other rusting

Copper Range VO1000 101 works next to the Houghton general offices. One of the road’s other Baldwins was spotted at the roundhouse this day.

Mining road Calumet & Hecla’s latest acqui-
sition, ex-Army Baldwin S12 No. L-4, built in
1950, is parked, crewless, at Calumet.